Neapolitan vs thin crust — the difference
Both are round Italian pizzas, but opposite in texture: Neapolitan is soft and puffy with a high, airy rim, while tonda romana is rolled cracker-thin to snap when you fold it.
Side by side
Every number below is the calculator’s, at each style’s default size:
| Neapolitan | Thin & crispy | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Hand-stretched round | Hand-stretched round |
| Typical size | 260 g ball ≈ 29 cm | 180 g ball ≈ 30 cm |
| Dough per pizza | 260 g | 180 g |
| Hydration | 62% | 56% |
| Salt | 2.8% | 2.5% |
| Oil | — | 2.5% |
| Oven | 450 °C / 842 °F | 300 °C / 572 °F |
| Flour | Pizzeria 00 | All-purpose or light 00 |
| Protein | 12–13.5% | 10.5–12% |
What sets them apart
Neapolitan. Neapolitan runs wetter and is stretched gently by hand, leaving gas in the rim so it balloons into a soft, chewy cornicione in a hot oven.
Thin & crispy. Thin crust runs much drier and is rolled flat with a pin — no puffy rim by design — for a uniformly crisp, brittle base that shatters at the fold.
Which one to make
Go Neapolitan. Choose Neapolitan for a soft, foldable pizza with a dramatic airy rim and a tender, slightly chewy bite.
Go Thin & crispy. Choose thin crust when you want maximum crunch — a light, cracker-like base that stays crisp under the toppings.
Same four-ingredient spirit, very different water: the gap between them is mostly hydration and whether you stretch by hand or roll with a pin. The hydration guide explains why that one number changes everything.
For the numbers behind the table, see the hydration and flour guides.
Questions from the counter
Why is my Neapolitan not crispy like thin crust?
Because it isn't meant to be — a Neapolitan is soft and foldable by design, with the crispness living only in the spotted base. If you want a cracker snap, that's the thin-crust tonda, which is rolled far thinner and drier.
Can I roll Neapolitan dough thin?
You can, but you'll press the air out of the rim and lose what makes it Neapolitan. For a thin, crisp result, start from the thin-crust preset instead — it's drier and built to be rolled.
Make either one
The calculator weighs and schedules both — pick a preset and it does the rest.
The clock is a suggestion. The dough is the boss. In bocca al lupo!
Impasto is a free pizza dough calculator for Neapolitan, New York, Roman, Sicilian, Detroit, thin crust and focaccia doughs — flour, water, salt and yeast weighed in baker's percentages, with the fermentation schedule written for you.